Confusion

I still don't have my camera back from the repairers but +urszula masilela was apparently missing me, so since I've been taking my old 350D out at lunchtimes (with very varying levels of success) here's something to fill the gap…

They looked one way up the street, then the other, then back again. He looked up one street, she looked down another. They glanced up and down. Brows were furrowed. And then I caught their eyes.

"Problem?" I asked.

"All these leopards!" the man tutted. He resumed looking confused and I decided to join him in that state.

"Leopards?" I asked. I made a mental note to stop asking one-word questions.

The woman shook her head in irritation as a rivulet of water ran down her temple and cheek. The man grunted and pointed into the sky and then at the ground. He shook himself. "Leopards!" he said.

"We call that stuff rain around here," I offered helpfully.

A perplexed glance was shared between the damp couple. "Never heard of it," said the man. "Do you call those candles?" he asked, looking up and then squinting awkwardly as a drop splashed into his eyeball.

"Nope. Those are called clouds. Everyone calls them clouds because they're clouds. Candles are something else entirely."

"Not where we're from," he replied. His companion busied herself looking around anxiously.

"You're still looking a little confused," I remarked.

"We've been here ages and there hasn't been a single sense of impending doom."

"That's the sort of thing you step onto and it takes you from one place to another?"

They nodded and I saw a bit of a smile. "Well, at least a sense of impending doom is the same in this weird place," the man said. I decided not to correct him and instead led the pair of them away from the centre of the pedestrianised precinct and to the nearest bus stop.

At least, that's what I told them. It was actually a tree. I can only assume they're still there.